posted Aug 15th, 2019 - The NSL News update on July 1st covered the July meet of the Texas Skydiving League, the San Marcos Showdown. The story included an interesting look back in time, as former Elsinore GT members re-connected on the same meet weekend in a special way.

EGT alumni Thomas Hughes and Scott Latinis were working together at Skydive Spaceland Sam Marcos on the TSL weekend, where Thomas Hughes has recently been managing the skydiving operation. The same story was showing a copy of an Omniskore leaderboard of the Advanced Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2004, where three Elsinore teams swept the USPA medal rankings.

Mass Defiance finished in 4th place before winning the Advanced Class gold medals a year later.

The story of the Texas Skydiving League event in San Marcos was enough reason for the NSL News to take a closer look at this time period. It turned out that San Marcos manager Thomas Hughes, Arizona Airspeed 4-way world champion of 2012, was not only a former EGT member. The 2004 season was also the start of Natasha Montgomery's 4-way dream story, and Thomas Hughes was her team mate during her first year in 4-way competition.

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Nov 19th, 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		C,2,12	Q,P,L,6	B,M,7,17	J,4,5	14,D,21	A,15,8	O,N,E,19	3,11,13	H,K,18,G	1,20,22	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Blade		17	28	21	20	18	18	25	17	23	12	199	19.9
Roster: Steve Curtis (Video), Robert Healy (Tail), Thomas Hughes (Outside Center), Mark Kirkby (Inside Center), Natasha Montgomery (Point)
Oct 6th, 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		4,P,22	16,2,8	21,N,14	3,H,M,7	12,6,17	15,10,L	O,13,1	K,18,11	Q,B,20,D	19,G,C,F	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Blade	US	18	17	19	21	16	16	16	17	23	22	185	18.5
Sep 11th, 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		9,1,F	22,G,17	15,18,C	19,13,6	8,K,L,M	H,21,B,3	5,7,O	14,P,J,Q	20,16,10	D,12,2	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Blade		23	14	16	18	20	18	17	22	14	17	179	17.9
Aug 7th, 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		14,4,18	11,D,1	J,16,O,19	20,2,5	F,L,M,6	K,7,E,8	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Blade		14	16	18	14	25	19	-	-	-	-	106	17.7
Jun 19th, 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	L,11,10	18,4,C	12,2,8	B,D,21,Q	6,P,7	13,F,H,N	-	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Blade		15	14	13	20	19	20	-	-	-	-	101	16.8
May 1st, 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	1,15,14	17,22,20	7,J,M,8	9,3,B	18,A,12	4,F,10	-	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Blade		12	13	19	19	14	15	-	-	-	-	92	15.3
Feb 14th, 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	4,L,15	19,3,C	G,17,K,9	14,E,11	10,18,13	2,22,J	-	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Blade		14	14	16	12	13	13	-	-	-	-	82	13.7

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The lineup of Natasha Montgomery's first 4-way team, Arizona Blade, also included 4-way world champion and player-coach Mark Kirkby and Robert Healy, with Steve Curtis on camera.

She had made her first AFF jump in November 2002 and put her first 4-way team together a year later, with the goal to become a world champion.

Arizona Blade used five meets of the former Southwest Skydiving League in 2004 to get ready for the 4-way Open Class competition at the USPA Nationals the same year and won the bronze medals in Perris. It was the same event where the three Elsinore teams swept the USPA medal rankings in the Advanced Class.

Arizona Blade increased the meet average at each of the six meets in 2004 and topped it off with the 19.9 average at the NSL Championship 2004.

That was the end of Arizona Blade, as Natasha Montgomery was ready for the next step, which was the 1st place at the USPA Nationals 2005 to qualify for the next world meet in 2006.

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FAI World Meet 2006		1	2	3	4	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	N,20,16	K,J,C,G,3	D,19,B,6	L,14,10	F,17,M,2	-	-	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire	20	27	25	17	28	-	-	-	-	-	-	117	23.4
Roster: Ian Bobo (Tail), Natasha Montgomery (Point), Shannon Pilcher (Inside Center), Gary Smith (Outside Center), Jonathan Tagle (Video)
Shamrock Showdown 2006		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	-	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	K,3,18	11,22,8	H,10,17	F,M,P,O,E	5,1,15	G,19,7	C,9,Q,N	16,A,20	13,4,L	B,21,J,14	-	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire	16	14	22	47	18	21	35	18	19	22	-	232	23.2
FAI World Cup 2005		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	-	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	4,H,7	12,16,19	M,J,O,5	8,15,K	G,C,20,D	9,14,Q	18,N,22	P,10,1	2,11,21	L,13,F,17	-	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire	23	18	30	19	23	23	16	19	15	26	-	212	21.2
USPA Nationals 2005		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	2,A,19	F,20,D,9	C,21,N,11	15,M,8	4,6,P	5,1,H	22,7,12	3,K,16	E,17,14	13,18,J	O,G,B,L,Q	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire	22	27	22	20	18	21	17	21	22	20	36	210	21.0
Malevsky Cup 2005		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	-	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	10,C,11	2,M,20	K,A,3,F	14,7,O	22,19,P	D,15,G,8	L,18,J,13	1,H,N,16	5,12,6	E,9,Q,17	-	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire	19	20	26	22	18	20	20	22	17	32	-	216	21.6
Roster: Ian Bobo (Tail), Natasha Montgomery (Point), Shannon Pilcher (Inside Center), Gary Smith (Outside Center), Eric Taylor (Video)
Shamrock Showdown 2005		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	-	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	11,16,J	15,17,H	F,20,9	P,L,5,6	7,Q,21	E,3,K,4	19,14,G	22,2,1	12,18,A	13,B,D,8	-	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire	21	22	24	23	23	20	20	15	16	23	-	207	20.7
Roster: Ian Bobo (Tail), Thomas Hughes (Video), Natasha Montgomery (Point), Shannon Pilcher (Inside Center), Gary Smith (Outside Center)

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She recruited a new lineup, which was guided by Gary Smith, reigning 4-way world champion of 2004 with DeLand Majik. Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo completed the DeLand Fire lineup, Thomas Hughes continued on camera. PD Blue videographer Eric Taylor took the filming job later for the 2005 season, as Thomas Hughes was not eligible for USPA medals at that time.

Natasha Montgomery again gathered more competition experiences, this time on the international stage, first at the Shamrock Showdown 2005, followed by the Malevsky Cup. DeLand Fire won both events and seemed to be ready for challenging the best U.S. 4-way teams at the national championships.

The USPA Nationals 2005 became a thriller, including a jump-off round with the Golden Knights. DeLand Fire won, and Natasha Montgomery was on her way to her first FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving.

DeLand Fire, with Jonathan Tagle on camera in 2006, followed up with more international competition practice at the FAI World Cup 2005 and the Shamrock Showdown 2006 before winning the gold medals at the FAI World Meet 2006 in Germany. Both original Arizona Blade members Mark Kirkby and Thomas Hughes eventually won their FAI 4-way gold medals together in Dubai 2012, the first one for Thomas Hughes, and the 5th one for Mark Kirkby...